The sabermetric blog of Cyril "Cy" Morong, professor of Economics at San Antonio College

Friday, October 20, 2017

Cubs & Dodgers in the second half & September

The first table below shows the team stats in the 2nd half. It sure looks like the Cubs had been playing better than the Dodgers, especially when you look at the OPS differential. The Cubs were ahead by .059 (.112 vs. .053). Run differential was a big edge for the Dodgers (127 vs. 27).

Stat

Cubs

Dodgers

W

49

43

L

25

29

Pct

0.662

0.597

Runs

423

307

Opp. Runs

296

280

Differential

127

27

OPS

0.811

0.749

Opp OPS

0.699

0.696

OPS Diff

0.112

0.053

The Cubs had an even bigger lead in Sept. They were 6.5 games better, 52 runs better and .068 better in OPS differential. Yet, the Dodgers easily beat the Cubs in the LCS. The Dodgers also swept their division series while it took the Cubs 5 games.